Category: Prevention & Awareness

TK Truong, a member of the Active Minds Student Advisory Committee majoring in psychology and minoring in film and digital media at UCLA, explains why she is a mental health advocate. To me, one of the most important aspects about being a mental health advocate, especially if you are affected mental illness yourself, is being imperfect. Ever…

Leah Nelson, co-founder of Active Minds at UConn, discusses how the darkness of depression isn’t permanent and how advocacy enhances her recovery. When I tell people I work for a suicide prevention non-profit and am an attempt survivor, I’m often met with a look of questioning – they want to know how that kind of…

Robyn Suchy is the Active Minds Student Advisory Committee President and a student at Cabrini College (PA), explains why she is a mental health advocate. I never intended to become a mental health advocate. I got involved in Active Minds during my freshmen year of college in an attempt to find some kind of peace. I struggled…

Maggie Bertram, Senior Program Manager for Student-Led Initiatives and Speakers Bureau member at Active Minds, talks about her struggle with an eating disorder and how we all play a role in keeping each other here. When I was 22, I didn’t really care whether I lived or died. I didn’t intend to die; I didn’t believe I…

Lauren Lawler, former Active Minds Student Advisory Committee President and clinical practitioner at University of Tennessee (Knoxville), explains why she is a mental health advocate. I am a mental health advocate because I believe in the spirit that lives in each and every one of us. With every fiber of my being, I strongly feel…

An excerpt from Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl by Stacy Pershall, author and member of the Active Minds Speakers Bureau (pp. 133-135). The following excerpt details what it feels like to come to campus and have a bout of severe depression. I could swear the world was wrapped in a brown cloud…